Today (31/8/03), myself and
Graham Turner spent 4-5 hours sea watching from Magic Pt in Maroubra (Sydney)
hoping that the original weather forecast of a southerly change in the afternoon
would eventuate but to no avail. We did see Wedge-tailed Shearwaters well in
force and hundreds of Fluttering Shearwaters. Many of the Fluttering Shearwaters
were heading both north and south and the Wedge-tailed Shearwaters appeared to
be all heading south. There were also hundreds of Prions heading north (none of
the Prions could positively be positively identified as any particular species
of Prion as they were way out from shore). The only Albatross seen was an adult
Black-browed Albatross and we saw 2 Eastern Curlews heading south over the sea.
A pod of at least 5 Common Bottle-nosed Dolphins and a Humpback Whale (the
former heading south and the later briefly seen and heading north) were the
mammal species seen. Also as we were watching the sea birds, a Kestrel was seen
making a couple of visits and landing very close to us showing its prey (the
first time an Eastern Water Skink and the second I could not figure it out).
A walk in the heath land hoping
that the Orange-bellied Parrot was still at the spot where I saw it 2 weeks ago
yielded only a Southern Emu-wren and a few Fairy Martins but no OBP.
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Sea birds recorded:
Black-browed Albatross (1)
Prion species (200 plus)
Wedge-tailed Shearwater (1,000
plus)
Fluttering Shearwater (500
plus)
Australasian Gannet (20 plus)
Little Black Cormorant (1)
Little Black Cormorant (7)
Great Cormorant (1)
Silver Gull (numbers not
counted)
Crested Tern (20 plus)
Mammals recorded:
Humpback Whale (1)
Common Bottle-nosed Dolphin (at
least 5)
Edwin Vella
SEABIRDS
RULE!
